2025 (Current Year) Faculty Courses Liberal arts and basic science courses Basic science and technology courses
Fundamentals of Mechanics 1 D
- Academic unit or major
- Basic science and technology courses
- Instructor(s)
- Hiroyuki Hirayama
- Class Format
- Lecture (Face-to-face)
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 1-2 Tue
- Class
- D
- Course Code
- LAS.P101
- Number of credits
- 100
- Course offered
- 2025
- Offered quarter
- 1Q
- Syllabus updated
- Mar 19, 2025
- Language
- Japanese
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
The course teaches the fundamentals of particle motion starting with the equations that describe the motion of an object.
Mechanics is important for understanding nature, and is essential for the study of science, engineering, life sciences, and other specialized courses. Students will learn the physical laws of motion and their mathematical description. This will allow them to understand particle mechanics as well as find solutions to most general problems in mechanics.
Course description and aims
By completing this course, students will be able to:
1) Correctly understand the concepts of velocity, acceleration, force, momentum, angular momentum, torque, work, energy, etc., and mathematically describe them.
2) Correctly understand the laws of motion; the laws of conservation of momentum, angular momentum, and energy that are derived from the laws of motion; and solve actual physical problems by applying these laws.
3) Find mathematical solutions to problems in mechanics, expressed by the appropriate equations, and explain the physical meaning of said solutions.
Keywords
position, velocity, acceleration, momentum, force, laws of motion, law of conservation of momentum, free fall, simple harmonic motion, parabolic motion, work, kinetic energy, potential energy, law of conservation of energy, central force, angular momentum, torque, law of conservation of angular momentum, universal gravitation, Kepler’s laws
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
Two-thirds of each class is devoted to fundamentals and the rest to advanced content or application. To allow students to get a good grasp of the course contents and practice problem solving skills, problems related to the contents of this course are provided in Exercises in Physics I.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Description of motion (position, velocity, acceleration) | Explain position, velocity, and acceleration using vectors. |
| Class 2 | Newton’s three laws of motion (law of inertia, equation of motion, law of action and reaction) | Explain Newton’s three laws of motion and describe motion using the equations of motion. |
| Class 3 | Linear motion (free fall, simple harmonic motion, simple pendulum) | Explain typical linear motions such as free fall and simple harmonic motion. |
| Class 4 | Motion in a plane (parabolic motion, damped harmonic oscillation, and driven harmonic oscillation) | Explain damped harmonic oscillation and driven harmonic oscillation in addition to planar motion such as parabolic motion. |
| Class 5 | Work and energy (kinetic energy, conservative force and potential energy), law of conservation of energy | Explain the concepts of work, kinetic energy, potential energy, and the law of conservation of energy. |
| Class 6 | Angular momentum and torque (vector product) | Explain the concepts of angular momentum and torque, and express them using the vector product. |
| Class 7 | Motion under a central force (law of conservation of angular momentum, description of velocity and acceleration in terms of polar coordinates) | Explain the law of conservation of angular momentum and the motion of a particle under a central force, as well as describe such motion using polar coordinates. |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Textbook(s)
Morikazu Toda, Mechanics (Physics Introductory course 1), Iwanami shoten
Reference books, course materials, etc.
Toshio Hyodo ISBN 978-4-7806-0941-7 (Mechanics), Gakujyutsu-Tosyo Syuppan
Evaluation methods and criteria
Learning achievement is evaluated by quizzes, reports and a final exam.
Related courses
- LAS.P105 ： Exercises in Physics I
Prerequisites
No prerequisites.